In Their Shoes review: Shine off

Rich in craft and content, "In Their Shoes" is a polished take on the shoe industry in Agra.

In Their Shoes

In Their Shoes

Genre: Documentary

Director: Atul Sabharwal

Mughal monuments so much dominate any talk on Agra that we tend to forget that the city houses the largest shoe market in the country. It is here that the shoes that Bachendri Pal wore to Mount Everest were stitched. It is here that the shoes that our defence forces wear in inhospitable terrains are put together. Now Atul Sabharwal, who made an impressive debut last year with Aurangzeb has turned the spotlight on the industry that drives a large portion of our export business.

Sabharwal has an emotional attachment to the subject. His family is in the shoe business for two generations and it is through his father O.P. Sabharwal that he takes us into the lanes and bylanes of the area around the Jama Masjid where jatavs and Muslims artisans work together to create shoes that are worn world over. They take pride in their work and have little nuggets of information to share.

He gives us an idea of how the industry took shape in Hing Ki Mandi and then moves on to the issues that have changed the character of the industry. The biggest of them is the entry of Chinese foam that has altered the way our shoes were made. From pure leather upper on leather sole now they make, what many old timers call garbage, leather like products that may be cheap but are poor in quality. The government policy of opening export of leather has dented the domestic industry. Plus the closing down of the leather tanneries because of pollution issues has affected the industry adversely. No wonder, like Atul’s father not many want their kids to pursue the family tradition.

Atul also captures the allied industries like shoe polish where wax variants are giving way to instant shiners because people no longer have the patience for the ‘shining ceremony’ as one second generation trader describes the process.

There is an information overload and there are phases where Atul’s indulgence comes in the way of storytelling. It seems he wants to include everybody his father introduced him to. Still it is a document you can’t shoo away.